Spirit Vision Films will once again be working with the Clallam County Road Department to document a bridge restoration project in the Sequim Dungeness Valley.

Beginning in late June, the Ward Bridge (named for its proximity to the Ward road) on Woodcock road where it transverses the Dungeness River, will be closed for repairs to its concrete footings.

Bruch and Bruch Construction will undertake the highly elaborate and delicate repair of the concrete footings in the river. After decades of high-flow winter flooding along the Dungeness, the footings have sustained damage that will be addressed in this repair. Along with the in-water work, the bridge deck will be ground and resurfaced with a hot asphalt mix.

Because of the work done in the river itself, the contractor will have to divert the river and de-water the areas around the three footings that support the bridge.

It has taken nearly three years to acquire the necessary permitting and the in-water work has to be done in a very narrow ‘fish window,’ starting July 15th and ending August 15th.

The late June closure gives the contractor time to build access roads to the river’s edge (but not in the river), so that when the fish window is open they can place ‘super sacks’ in the river to divert the water around the work areas and move the salmon smolts within the work area into the diverted channel that will also allow returning salmon to pass safely through the work area.

The road closure will occur at the intersection of Town and Woodcock roads and at the Ward and Woodcock roads intersection. The project is slated to be completed by September 1st.

Spirit Vision Films will be using time-lapse, ground and aerial videography, as well as still imagery to document this project from closure of the road thru the repair, and eventual re-opening of the bridge. This long-term project will be exciting and we are looking forward to the challenge of capturing the essence of how intricate and detailed projects like this can be.

Spirit Vision Films has just signed a contract with the Northwest Cooperative Development Center in Olympia, Washington to create 8 training video modules for their upcoming Legacy Project.

This project is focused on the baby boom generation that includes at least seven million owners of privately held businesses, many of whom will want to sell or liquidate their businesses in the next two decades.

One succession strategy is for small business owners to sell their businesses to their employees by converting to a worker-cooperative ownership model. This model gives owners a viable exit strategy, offers opportunities for rural workers to retain their jobs, and allows for retention of local ownership.

The modules will give a step by step instruction on how this is accomplished.

The filming starts in the middle of May and the modules should be available by the middle of June. Should be fun!

The NWCDC’s website is http://www.nwcdc.coop for more information and will be the home of their new modules. Check them out.

Our latest UAV or drone allows for more time in the air, as well as a quieter presence while flying. It has the ability (like our other Phantom 4 Pro) to film in 4K. This is four times the resolution of full high definition (HD) – 1080p, delivering the highest quality color, sharpness, and clarity to your finished product.

This adds one more tool to our arsenal of professional quality film cameras and flying platforms to give you, our clients, the best quality films and videos, when shopping for aerial or ground-based video production on the North Olympic Peninsula and western Washington.

Christopher Enges, owner and producer of Spirit Vision Films holds a Part 107 FAA commercial UAS remote pilot’s certificate, which is required of all UAV operators who use drones in creating videos and films commercially. Our UAVs and business are fully insured for your protection with a million dollar coverage package.

Some of our recent clients include, the City of Port Angeles, Clallam County DCD, Clallam County Road Dept., the City of Sequim, Peninsula College, Washington Water Trust, Clallam Conservation District, the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, Kitsap County Public Works, PAPA TV in Port Angeles, along with several real estate firms and private individuals that have used our services.

Give us a call today for your free estimate of our services. We guarantee your satisfaction!

The Old Olympic Highway at the McDonald Creek Bridge was closed on July 10th, 2017 for a complete replacement of the earthquake prone and functionally obsolete bridge built in 1957.

Spirit Vision Films was contracted to document the progress of the bridge deconstruction and the new bridge’s construction by the Orion Marine Group, awarded to them by the Clallam County Road Department.

Whereas, working with the City of Port Angeles, we produced a video for them in 14 days, the Clallam County bridge project lasted nearly 10 month.

The final video is made up of mostly aerial clips that we flew around the project, but we used a time-lapse GoPro, and our Canon cinema camera to capture the progression as well.

But today both the bridge and the video are complete and we at SVF’s could not be happier!

If you have never seen a bridge being constructed, this video is for you! Watch from the very beginning until the bridge’s dedication on April 28th, to the opening three days later on May 1st, 2018.

I met with Dan McKeen, City Manager of Port Angeles on an urgent request to produce a video highlighting the EWF or Elwha Water Facility that was built to handle the silt that was released by the deconstruction of the Elwha dams. They needed to show the Interior Dept. and National Parks Service visually, how this new 79-million dollar facility would break their budget. As the old water facility only took 60k to maintain. The new one, over 600k …. over ten times the amount! The NPS wanted to turn it over to the city with little financial help on the maintenance side. The city said no.

Time was of the essence. Dan and a delegation from our state were to meet with the players back in Washington DC to try and settle this issue. No one likes lawsuits.

Because of the time issue, Spirit Vision Films contracted with the City of Port Angeles to create a 10-minute video that had to be completed in three weeks time. This was the approximate time that the meeting would take place.

As there was a lot of aerial work to be done in the video, that was one of the first things we did, but the weather was terrible! We even flew in between rain showers and high winds to get our shots. (That DJI Phantom 4 Pro is unbelievable in the wind!)

The city was extremely helpful in getting interviews with the former mayor of Port Angeles, Jim Hallet, who originally negotiated the terms of dam removal with the NPS. We also had to interview Sissy Bruch the current mayor of the city.

Unfortunately, the meeting was pushed up one week in DC. The city knew that three weeks to create a film in the weather conditions we were experiencing, as well as story writing, and all the things that go into a great film was pushing the envelope. So, they did not ask me to complete the work in two weeks. But I volunteered anyway! What was the purpose of the film if it would be too late to view by the folks it was intended for?

Working around the clock, we were able to complete the video and I was able to send the finished work to them at 8 pm the night before the delegation left for DC. Fourteen days flat!

In response to that action, Dan McKeen sent me the nice card below.

As a former US Navy SeaBee, who has worked in harsh environments around the world, our motto (which I shared with Dan) was, “The improbable …. we can do today, the impossible …… takes a little longer!” We take our commitments here at Spirit Visio Films extremely serious. I am glad we were able to help the city with this pressing need!

Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the Alliance for Community Media’s, Best of the Northwest Awards in Portland this weekend.

I had entered three of our films in this year’s festival that represents Alaska, Alberta, Canada, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Oregon, Idaho and of course Washington. I knew that the competition would be great. And it was.

One of the three films made it to the finalist level …. the On the Road episode, the Olympic Discovery Trail. It was the only one I entered twice. Once in the Documentary and once in the Informative Feature category. I actually did not know which one was accepted as a finalist…. until this weekend. The ODT was accepted in BOTH categories as finalist! We only had one other film to compete against in each category. So, I thought our chances were good to nab at least one of these prestigious awards.

Imagine my shock and surprise when I found out that the Olympic Discovery Trial won BOTH categories in this festival. Best documentary and best informative feature.

To say that we at Spirit Vision Films and PAPA TV in Port Angeles are just a little excited would be an understatement! We are thrilled that this film has won, not only for Spirit Vision Films, but the whole of the North Olympic Peninsula. This film will draw attention to us here. We are very thrilled about this! My narrator, Elaine Cochran had a lot to do with these awards. So, thank you so much Elaine. I couldn’t have done it without you!

I hope you can take some time and check the film out yourself …. especially if you are a hike or biker. Enjoy!

Working with PAPA TV for the last two years has given us the opportunity to produce some great video. In this case, the On the Road series. Over the course of the last year we have produced four episodes.

I entered three different films, including one of the episodes of the OTR series that have aired on PAPA TV in the last year to the Best of the Northwest Awards this year. The Alliance for Community Media which represents Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Oregon, Wyoming, and Washington community media and PEG (Public, Education, and Government) television stations hosts the annual event and invites these stations to enter their best productions in various categories.

Spirit Vision Films, along with PAPA TV’s On the Road – Olympic Discovery Trail was picked as a finalist in the Informative Feature category. Very cool!

As such, we will be attending the awards ceremony in Portland, Oregon on April 27th to see where we end up in the competition. We at PAPA TV and Spirit Vision Films are extremely excited to be even considered as a finalist in this very competitive awards ceremony. Stay tuned!

I love using our UAV for filming documentaries. It adds an element that can’t be had with ground based videography.

But UAVs have many different applications other than just film making. For instance, using the UAV to survey bluff erosion is so helpful when looking back at your bluff to see what you can’t see in many cases of high bluff waterfront property.

Such is the case with this canyon and bluff near Port Angeles, Washington. There is obvious erosion happening all over this canyon. You could not see the bottom of the canyon while standing on the edge or the undercut working it’s way back toward the road. There is no access from the beach, other than by boat, either. That is why using a UAV to look back at the bluff is so beneficial and much, much safer!

Call us for a free estimate if you are curious about the face of your high bank waterfront.

Orion Marine Group continues to move along on the McDonald Creek Bridge replacement project with the pouring of the concrete bridge deck. Check out the progress that has occurred since the last update.

Completion of the project is projected to be around mid-March, weather depending.

Now that the 30-minute On the Road – Olympic National Park Fall episode has aired on PAPA TV, we are turning our attention to a 5-minute ‘trailer’ of this film.

It is a condensed video that points to the original version in links to Vimeo and YouTube at the end of the film. We are going to use this one, as well as the other three On the Road episodes in shortened versions of the originals to market our series off the peninsula.

Here is the 5-minute version of the Olympic National Park Fall Trailer: